Luke Staunton has offered a hands-on assessment of the recently announced HMD Fusion. He did an distinctive job highlighting the cellphone’s benefits and downsides for potential patrons (because the gadget is already available in some markets) and likewise showcased some digital camera work. Thanks once more, Luke, for the trouble put into this hands-on assessment. We actually recognize it.
Introduction
The HMD Fusion venture was first introduced again at MWC 2024 within the type of a growth toolkit for a modular smartphone platform, which included a pogo pin {hardware} interface for circumstances and attachments often called ‘Outfits’, and the provision of CAD recordsdata and API entry to permit people and companies to develop their very own Outfits.
Almost 6 months later at IFA 2024, HMD unveiled the Fusion as a smartphone alongside V2.0 of the dev toolkit. HMD additionally demoed a collection of Outfits such because the Informal Outfit (a TPU case), a Flashy Outfit with an built-in LED ring mild, a Rugged Outfit to supply IP68 safety, a magnetic wi-fi charging outfit, and a recreation controller outfit.
A French firm named Coppernic has additionally developed a barcode scanner outfit for enterprise makes use of, with an entry management outfit coming by the top of 2024.
Following the launch, the HMD Fusion is accessible for buy in a number of markets, so I received maintain of the 8/256 GB variant right here within the UK for £249.99.
HMD Fusion design, specs and efficiency
The HMD Fusion comes with the identical field design as different HMD smartphones such because the Pulse and Skyline, with a picture of the gadget alongside embossed silver textual content. Within the field are the standard directions, SIM tray pin, USB-C to C cable and a fast information, however the Fusion additionally comes with a transparent/gray ‘Informal Outfit’ case preinstalled (different colors retail for £24.99 right here within the UK).
The gadget itself is primarily plastic and is available in one color: Black. The design stands out with its pared-back industrial aesthetic with uncovered screws, pogo pins and marks of the manufacturing course of and milling left on show. There may be additionally a plate built-in into the again panel which appears just like the battery (it’s not), however does look like manufactured from steel – HMD within the press release for Fusion discuss with ‘stainless-steel bolstered plastic casing’.
Whereas the cellphone can be utilized and not using a case, the repairability means an IP54 score in opposition to water and dirt, it’s clear Fusion is designed for use with an outfit more often than not.
The design will instantly draw comparisons to each the Nothing CMF Telephone 1 and varied Fairphone fashions. Fusion sits between them at an inexpensive value level, with better customisation potential than the CMF and repairability by a partnership with iFixit that doesn’t fairly attain the benefit and ease of Fairphone.
The Fusion additionally sits in the course of HMD’s present smartphone line-up, taking points from the low-end Pulse collection (the HD+ LCD display) and the upper-mid Skyline (the 108MP foremost digital camera sensor).
Chipset
The selection of low-end 5G chipset within the type of the Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 additionally raised some issues, in sensible phrases it’s completely superb for day by day use and matches the likes of the Snapdragon 695 in compute speeds. The large draw back is the weak graphics efficiency of the Adreno 613 GPU, which is at the least mitigated by the 720p display – I examined with an prolonged session of Name of Obligation Cellular at medium graphics and FPS settings and gameplay was easy all through.
Battery
I’ve not performed any exams with the battery efficiency, however evidently the marketed up-to-65 hours is probably going attainable for a lot of within the target market (I haven’t been beneath 50% in a day to this point). The mix of low-resolution show and environment friendly 4nm chipset paired with a 5000mAh battery guarantees good longevity, maybe a deliberate alternative because the cellphone can energy good outfits as much as 5V (and outfits akin to a battery pack can do the identical in return).
Charging is as much as 33W wired, with the choice of limiting cost to 80% of the battery capability or enabling ‘Battery Safety’ to sluggish charging speeds after 80%.
Show & Sound
The opposite weak level on the Fusion spec sheet is the 6.56 inch HD+ LCD show which appears to be borrowed from the Pulse collection. Outdoors of focusing on Fusion for enterprise use and aiming for the longest battery life attainable, it actually would profit from a Full HD show, even whereas remaining LCD.
The low decision is generally noticeable up shut, or when utilizing the digital camera app, holding the cellphone at a traditional working distance its not attainable to identify particular person pixels. Colors are nonetheless muted, and in direct daylight the display will be tough to see. There may be additionally no point out of show safety stage, so fortunately the show will be changed within the occasion of breaks…
The refresh price is ready to 60hz by default, so it is strongly recommended to alter this to adaptive 90hz in show settings. There’s a primary White Stability slider, double faucet to wake gesture, and the choice for At all times on Show regardless of not being an OLED panel.
Sound is from a mono speaker, with OZO playback help with Dynamic, Music, Video games and Cinema presets, plus Audio Increase for top volumes or outside environments. There may be additionally a 3.5mm headphone jack, dev choices present a variety of Bluetooth (5.1) audio codecs however I’m unable to check right now. One concern I encountered is a clicking or popping noise seemingly coming from the speaker when scrolling previous media.
Cameras
Whereas the Fusion borrows some parts from the low-end Pulse collection, the principle digital camera borrows from the larger brother the HMD Skyline. Fusion shares the identical 108MP Samsung ISOCELL HM6 sensor, though right here with out OIS and solely flanked by a 2MP depth sensor. The equal aperture is f/1.8 vs f/1.7 on the Skyline.
The digital camera app can also be equivalent to the one launched with Skyline, and shares options akin to focus peaking, 108MP seize, Flash Shot and Professional Mode with RAW seize. Nonetheless Fusion doesn’t include Speedwarp, Extremely-Regular Video or Handheld Astrophotography, presumably as a result of it lacks an ultrawide or OIS. Whereas Skyline has toggles for 0.5 – 4x zoom, Fusion solely has a fast toggle for 3x zoom.
Try the images taken by HMD Fusion. Marin decreased the decision to avoid wasting up server area, however you may verify the originals at Nokiamob’s Flickr account.
Picture high quality is powerful for the value and similar to the Skyline, with pictures maybe somewhat cooler or magenta in tint. Zoomed pictures as much as 3x are very usable in good mild, though some noise and lack of element creeps in in decrease mild. With out a devoted telephoto lens or OIS, zoom autofocus will be finicky at occasions and there’s a little much less element in 2x than with Skyline.
The Fusion additionally shares a 50MP entrance digital camera with selfie gesture help, full-res possibility and focus peaking. There isn’t a eye-tracking right here, the selfie cam defaults to 1.2x as with Skyline and the choices for Pure or Shiny pores and skin tone and altering the color temperature when utilizing the display (or the Flashy Outfit) as a light-weight are current.
Lastly, video on the Fusion is capped at 1080p 30 or 60fps on each rear and entrance cameras. In my transient exams, video from the rear digital camera was surprisingly good high quality for 1080p and the EIS is efficient, with solely slight lens shake. Extra exams are wanted however Fusion appears above common within the value vary, OZO recording can also be current with 2 mics.
Misc.
Rounding out the options, the Fusion helps MicroSD playing cards as much as 1TB with a hybrid twin SIM slot, eSIM can also be supported. The fingerprint reader is side-mounted and built-in into the power-button, this can be a little too delicate as with earlier HMD fashions and would profit from the choice to solely activate if the facility button is pressed.
A last observe is on haptics, HMD has as soon as once more opted for a low-quality rotary motor which in my view is a missed alternative to actually lean into the economic aesthetic and chance for the good outfits to utilise haptic suggestions. The Skyline has a equally poor haptic motor which has the impact of undermining the high-quality design.
Conclusion
The HMD Fusion is an attention-grabbing gadget with a stripped-down design foregrounding the potential for customisation and restore. Concentrating on the gadget on the decrease mid-range phase makes it extra extensively accessible, but when there’s sufficient success as a proof-of-concept then a successor which improves the show, chipset and software program help (the Enterprise Version has 5 years of safety updates) would make much more sense for the goals of longevity and sustainability.
For now, we await the discharge of the launch outfits, and the potential for others to reinforce features such because the digital camera, battery growth or perhaps a second show? The query additionally stays on whether or not HMD will keep on with the identical dimensions to make sure future compatibility of Fusion outfits.
